1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to remote data storage and retrieval systems and in particular to a system for recording and storing a response or request, such as a voice response.
2. Background
Due to advances in technology and a changing political and economic environment many industries are being freed from the constraints of government regulation and controlled monopolies. In particular, utilities such as long distance telephone service, cable, and most recently electric utilities, are now entering a free-market environment. This market trend allows companies providing utility services to compete for customers.
Out of competition and the desire for increased profits, companies desiring greater market share are now calling potential customers in an effort to convince or entice these potential customers to switch service providers. For example, a telephone long distance service provider may call individuals to entice them to switch companies for their long distance service. To entice the potential customer to change service provider, the service provider often offer discounted service or rebates for changing service. Switching long distance service providers simply involves informing the local service carrier of the appropriate long distance service provider to allocate the long distance trunk usage to and change the appropriate billing to reflect the new service provider. Often the long distance service provider seeking new customers will waive any customer fees usually charged in hopes of reaping increased profits in the future.
In the past, if the potential customer agreed to change long distance service providers they would simply respond in the affirmative during the telephone call and the new long-distance service provider would independently call the local telephone service provider to effectuate the change. While this method worked well for a time, increased competition and entry into the market by unscrupulous businesses caused some long distance companies to enter into a practice known as slamming. In general, slamming comprises switching a customer""s long distance service provider without the customer""s prior authorization. A long distance carrier could xe2x80x98slamxe2x80x99 a customer by falsely reporting to the local telephone service provider that the customer had authorized the change. The local service provider would change the service as instructed and the customer, without any knowledge, would receive service from this new long distance service provider. The customer must then pay the new rate, which is often higher, to the new long distance service provider or undertake the process of changing back to their old service provider, often incurring a fee. The customer, having been slammed, had no way to prove they had not ordered the change.
While this example is specific to the long distance telephone industry, other businesses are susceptible to similar practices. For example, the potential exists for slamming in industries such as cable television, electricity, and even local telephone service.
In response to the widespread practice of slamming, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a requirements that before a customer is switch to a new long distance service provider third party verification must be obtained. Third party verification comprises verification by an entity independent from the long distance service provider.
Prior art methods of third party verification, while helpful to discourage slamming, suffers from several drawbacks. First, the process of third party verification is generally performed by independent live operators. Because the independent, third party live operators must be available when the calls are made to potential customers, the cost associated with advertising a new long distance service provider to a customer is increased because the additional labor costs associated with the additional live third party verification operators. This is especially true when numerous calls are simultaneously being made because numerous third party verifiers must be available to provide third party verification. Another disadvantage of using live operators is that the potential for fraud still exists in that only the word of the third party verifier supports the long distance service providers.
Of course, this is but one exemplary area where some form of independent verification would be helpful. Individuals today depend on telephones, computers and the Internet to conduct business that was previously conducted in person. For example, in the past a purchaser of a personal property item would have physically traveled to the store to purchase that item or met with the service provider to purchase a service. While the item may have been obtained on credit, the individual generally had to sign some form of credit agreement to thereby provide verification to the merchant of an obligation to pay the debit. The signature also verified receipt of the goods by the customer.
Due to the inconvenience of traveling to a merchant and the time constraints on individuals, the purchase of goods and/or services by telephone or Internet is becoming a more popular and widely adopted method of obtaining goods and/or services. The goods are shipped to directly to the customer and billed most often to a credit card. In the case of a service, the service is performed and the customer subsequently billed.
While this method of conducting business is convenient, it exposes the merchant or service provider to fraud. For example, after receiving the goods or service, certain dishonest customers have been known to deny that they ordered the goods or services. Conversely, certain dishonest merchants have been known to deliver unwanted goods, perform unwanted services and then subsequently bill for these unwanted goods and/or services, or even bill for services not performed. Because transactions are often performed via telephone or Internet, there is no way to verify that the customer actually ordered the goods or services. Hence, these types of transactions are subject to fraud.
Although the previously discussed examples involve the sale or goods or services, other situations beyond those of a commercial transaction may arise where some form of third party verification system may be beneficial. For example, various types of polling or petition drives could benefit from the convenience of being conducted by telephone or computer. However, previous attempts at such actions by telephone lacked reliability because of a lack of third party verification. Likewise, previous attempts were undesirably expensive because of the cost associated with live third party verification operators.
As discussed above, previous attempts at verifying an individuals decision, such as consent to purchase goods or services were inadequate for numerous reasons. One such inadequacy is that the obtained verification could not be independently confirmed beyond that of the third party verifier. Another reason previous attempts of verification were inadequate is because previous attempts, relying on live operators or verifiers, were prohibitively expensive. Yet another drawback of previous attempts involve the perpetration of fraud in the verification system because of collusion between the third party and the party hiring or controlling the third party.
Prior art attempts to provide some form of automated third party verification have several shortcomings. For example, some devices simply record the conversation with a potential customer or party on an analog tape. However, this type of system lacks means to retrieve the recording in a quick and convenient manner.
For the above mentioned reasons, a method is needed for providing rapid and inexpensive verification of a decision made by an individual located remote from the party requiring verification. It is preferred that the method and apparatus of verification have means for evidencing the agreement or consent of the party to others at a later time. Hence, the verification is preferably reproducible so that the verification can be provided to another at a later time.
Therefore, a need still exists for an automated third party verification system having the features and advantages described herein.
In accordance with the purpose of the invention as broadly described herein there is provided a verification system for use in a computer environment to provide independent third party verification in the form of audio or video files. Use of the verification system includes but is not limited to instances when an independent and verifiable record of consent or of a particular response to a question or series of questions is desired. In various situations the consent or response may obligate a person financially or in some other manner.
In one embodiment the verification system described herein comprises a PSTN compatible voice response unit configured to automatically receive a call. The voice response unit presents one or more voice scripts to the call and digitally records spoken answers provided by the individual participating in the call. The recorded answers are cataloged by a record number in a database and digitally stored on a computer storage device, such as a hard disk drive.
If the response of the person is ever called into question, the verification system includes means for the response to be retrieved from storage and restored to audio format. Various methods and apparatus may be adopted to perform the retrieval process. In one embodiment the retrieval process occurs via telephone whereby an authorized user (client) calls the verification system and gains access to the system with passwords or passnumbers. Next, the client enters a record number identifier to retrieve the proper audio file record from the verification system storage device. Upon retrieval of the record, the voice response unit converts the file to an audio format for the client.
In another embodiment the retrieval process occurs via a computer network such as the Internet. In such an embodiment the verification system includes a computer network interface, such as an Internet server to facilitate access to the verification system by a client or other authorized third party via the Internet. To retrieve the verification data a client of the third party verification system accesses the verification system Internet server via the Internet and enters identification and password information to gain access to the record data. Next, the client identifies a record and instructs the verification system to retrieve the record. The verification system displays record information such as name and social security number. If the verification system retrieved the proper record the client downloads the audio or video verification file to their client computer over the Internet. The client may then play the audio or video file and may optionally patch in or connect other parties during the play back to provided the verification recording to other parties.
In one alternative embodiment, speech pattern recognition is utilized to provide further evidence of the recorded individuals statements. In an embodiment including speech pattern recognition, or voice fingerprint, the system performs signal processing on two or more speech samples to compare the speech patterns to identify if the same individual created both samples or audio recordings. In various configurations, the speech pattern recognition may be adopted for use in addition to or instead of the speech recording, storage and retrieval described above.
A detailed description of the present invention is provided below in conjunction with FIGS. 1-9.